Westworld Creators To Adapt Sci-Fi Novel 'The Peripheral' Into A Drama Series At Amazon

The tandem behind Westworld, Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, has been tasked to bring their A-game once more in an Amazon series based on William Gibson's The Peripheral.

The duo, known for being the creators of the hit HBO thriller series, were tapped to create a sci-fi series about a woman, Flynne Fisher, in the future, a time when technology has somehow started to change and affect the humanity. Amazon Studios is giving this project as a script-to-series to Joy and Nolan, which only meant that if its script would turn out good, it would become a series.

Writing the script is Scott B. Smith, an Oscar nominee for his adaptation of A Simple Plan. The scriptwriter will also serve as a showrunner, along with Joy, Nolan, Athena Wickham, Steve Hoban, and Vincenzo Natali. Natali, who directed the Dissonance Theory episode of the first season of Westworld, is also set to direct the pilot of the series.

Gibson, known for coining the term "cyberspace" from his short story in 1982 Burning Chrome, has become one of the leading writers of the sci-fi genre. That said, the audience could expect something big from Joy and Nolan's team, considering a wonderful source material.

His 2014 book The Peripheral is set to get its sequel, titled Agency, which will come out this month. Gibson's other works are The Difference Engine and Neuromancer.

What's more, audience can expect a lot from the husband and wife duo, who showed nothing but stellar handiwork with Westworld, a series Joy and Nolan have adapted from the 1973 Michael Crichton film of the same name. The show earned 22 Emmy nominations, so clearly the team behind it has done things spectacularly.

Competition

This news came just as Amazon is stepping up its game to level up or even gain more than its competitors, streaming company Netflix and HBO. To substantiate this, it has picked up a Lord of the Ringsseries. On the grapevine, a series based on the Chinese novel The Three-Body Problem may come to life as well.

Amazon has been known to have the habit of releasing a lot of pilots and then lets the audience know which ones are going to be a series. However, rumor has it that the platform is eyeing into ending this practice soon. Indeed, the recent sci-fi series adaptation of The Peripheral is an example of this, which could probably be a start of the trend for the studio.